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Panch Pandav Raths at Mahabalipuram

Panch Pandav Raths at Mahabalipuram

A few years back, I had gone to visit
cousins in Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu. On their suggestion, I headed out to
coastal town of Mammalapuram or Mahbalipuram which lies midway between Chennai
and Pondy a mere 90 kms. The reason I jumped to it was the drive on the ECR
(east coast road) which runs parallel to the sea mostly and the ancient temples
in Mahabalipuram which date back to the Mahabharat as per legend.

The road was amazing as it was smooth
and free from pot holes all the way through. The sea was visible in bits and
pieces and was farther than I thought it would be. One drawback of this road
stretch at that time was no good food joints apart from a government run Midway
which was pretty average.

Two hours of riding a bike and we
were there. It was quite balmy for February and I was surprised by the
fierceness of the morning sun. It grew worse as the day progressed. Everywhere
around I could spot lots of road side sellers, all selling beautifully carved
granite stone items. I did pick up a pestle and mortar though had no idea how I
would cart it back on the bike – it was damn heavy!

First stop was the Rathas – these are
monolith temples built out of a single rock by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman-I
(AD 630-660) and are called so as they resemble wooden chariots. These are
called PanchPandava raths (Five Pandavas Chariots) but apparently have nothing
whatsoever to do with the Mahabharata. Ok
by now I was bamboozled by this fact and sought for more information on this.

But the stone temples made me stop in
my tracks as they were just amazing in their construction. It’s said that a
huge rock sloping north to south was used to cut out each temples, few animals and
figures that are found in this compound. I was amazed to see that the texture
of the stone is still quite visible and it’s not smoothened over the years or
affected by the salty sea winds.

All the rathas are named after the
five pandavas and their wife Draupadi but carry inscriptions from the Pallava
empire and are in fact one of the finest specimen of Pallava plastic art form.
These are said to have no precedent in Indian architecture and were declared a
protected site by UNESCO in 1984 and are maintained by the ASI now.

Insert pic5 Draupadi Ratha

All the five rathas are in one
straight line starting from Dharamraj Ratha (Yudhishtra Ratha) to Bhima Ratha
to Arjuna Ratha to Nakul-Sahadeva Ratha and finally the Draupadi Ratha which
was the smallest of them all.

I couldn’t figure out why they were
named after these characters from the Mahabhartha but did hear that these were
never desecrated and stand intact since the day they were built. An amazing
accomplishment given that our country was raided and plundered by outsiders
numerous times.

If you ever have the opportunity to
visit Mahabalipuram, do stop by these incredible structures and marvel at the
thought behind their conception. Oh and do note the sound of chisel and hammers
all around as this town seemed to have some of the most gifted sculptors as
evident from the wares being hawked from every street stand.

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About Shalzmojo

An
interior designer by profession, writing is a passion which coupled with travel
love blossomed into this blog where I love to just “do my thing”! Be it
recipes, food events, travel jaunts, fiction dreaming or even meditative
musings; all of it’s taken up quite passionately on my blog. I am a serious
wine guzzler and love to chase butterflies in my free time.

Read about my visit to the monolithic temple in Masroor, Kangra in Himachal
Pradesh Here